


I Heard Heaven and Thunder Cry

by rorschachs



Series: The Others AU [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Urban Fantasy, Vampires, Werewolves, Written in Red AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2020-08-20 03:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20220772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rorschachs/pseuds/rorschachs
Summary: Andrew hasn't cared about anything in the Courtyard since he first set eyes on what passed for its Alpha. One stray human isn't going to change that.Run for Cover from Andrew's POV





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I didn't originally plan on doing this, but I've received so many nice comments on Run for Cover, many of them asking for scenes from Andrew's perspective. I don't plan on rewriting the entire story from his point of view, but I'll probably cover some major scenes and maybe a few scenes that Neil wasn't there for or that occur after Run for Cover ends. I'll be updating this as I write, so there's no strict posting schedule for now and I have no idea how many chapters this will end up being. Thanks again for your wonderful response to Run for Cover, and I hope you guys enjoy the extra content!

Kevin was right; the human did smell. Hair dye, the human had claimed, and Andrew could detect the bitter scent of chemicals underneath the dirt and blood and typical human musk. But it was more than that, more than humans' typical attempts to make themselves something else, cheap imitations of the transformations the Others were born with. Andrew could smell it in the blood that stained the human’s sweatshirt, several weeks old but still so sweet that he had to breathe through his mouth when he first entered the room. Like overripe fruit, saccharine and thick enough that Andrew could nearly taste it, too tempting to be pleasant.

“He’s hiding something,” Kevin had said, shifting from foot to foot just outside the iron gates of the Chambers, tense and resentful of his own need to run such decisions by Andrew as if Andrew could ever change his mind.

Snow whipped around them, catching in Kevin’s hair and melting against his skin with unnatural speed to form puddles that dripped down his cheekbones. Andrew had made him wait for ten long minutes after the Wolf first arrived outside the Chambers in the dead of night, enjoying the sharp bitterness that infused Kevin’s scent as his patience began to slip.

“Why hire him, then?” Andrew asked, not bothering to conceal the boredom in his voice. He hadn’t been sleeping when Kevin arrived, but he didn’t want to set a precedent of Kevin thinking he could confide in Andrew any more than he already did.

“No one else will even apply for the job anymore. Hardly any of the delivery drivers will stop here. The whole system is starting to break down; Riko will–”

“Riko doesn’t give a shit about your system,” Andrew snapped. “I doubt he’s even noticed.”

“Someone has to do the job,” Kevin persisted. “And he seemed more scared than dangerous.”

“Scared humans can be the most dangerous kind.”

“Not to us.”

Now, watching the human shift and twitch in his sleep, face scrunched up as if he was in pain and body curled into a tight ball, Andrew had to admit that Kevin was right. This ramshackle collection of skin and bones and cloyingly sweet blood hardly seemed like it could be a threat to the Courtyard, no matter how many secrets it was hiding. Still, no reason not to learn a little more.

The human’s eyes opened on a particularly hard twitch, and a second later he was scrambling back in bed, his heartbeat pounding in a thunderous panic and scent spiking with a sour fear that only barely cut through the overbearing sweetness.

“What the fuck?” His voice was thick with sleep, trembling, and Andrew watched with a detached interest as his hand fumbled underneath the pillow. Did the human have a weapon? Was he stupid enough to think a weapon could do anything against someone like Andrew?

“What are you doing here?” The tremble in his voice had lessened, but his heart still pounded like a frightened rabbit. Andrew swallowed down the saliva that pooled in his mouth and took another breath through his mouth.

“I’m here to greet the new liaison. I’m Andrew. And you’re…Neil.”

The human didn’t seem particularly surprised that Andrew had seen through the lie about his name. Andrew couldn’t really see the point of lying; what did the Others care about what their food called itself?

“Kevin sent you?”

“He said your clothes made you look like you had crawled out of a gutter. Among other criticisms.” As if Kevin wanted Andrew to talk him out of hiring the human, as if someone else making the decision might make it less of Kevin’s fault when something inevitably went wrong.

“Yeah, I’m aware he isn’t my biggest fan.”

“He thinks you smell strange.” Kevin had only mentioned the human’s scent once, but he wasn’t nearly as good at hiding his emotions as he thought.

“It’s the hair dye,” the human said, a hand coming up to touch the brown locks that had clumped together to form a small nest and then dropping back to the bed before the motion was complete. “I can’t fix it right now, but it should come out soon.”

“No, it’s not the hair dye. He says you don’t smell like prey.”

Andrew inhaled through his nose, getting another whiff of the chemical dye and a far stronger wave of sweetness. He was standing before he was aware of making the decision to move, sinking into a predatory prowl without meaning to, as if he were stalking prey. Andrew forced himself to stop a few inches from the human’s bed, swallowing another mouthful of saliva.

“But you are prey, aren’t you,” Andrew said. Prey, just like every other human Andrew had come across. Just like every other body he had drained without ever getting close to this feeling of tenuous control.

“I don’t know why I smell that way,” the human said, body frozen like a deer in headlights, pulse thumping frantically in his neck.

“He did say you were a bad liar. Do you want to know what you smell like to me, Neil Josten?”

The human met Andrew’s eyes, irises a shocking blue that glittered with something other than the fear his pulse spoke to. Andrew ran his tongue along the sharp prick of his teeth and tried to ignore the ache of his gums.

“Not really, no,” the human said.

Andrew bared his teeth in a smile, not sure if he wanted the human to behave more or less like prey. “So you do have a spine. Most of the others didn’t. Or at least, not a metaphorical one. We all enjoyed their real spines.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t have so much trouble finding a Human Liaison if you didn’t eat them all.” The human flashed Andrew’s smile back at him. “Just an observation.”

“The Wolves are the ones concerned with playing nice with the human world. Once you inevitably remind Kevin why mortals frustrate him so much, I’ll happily remind him of your benefits. Us _Sanguinati_ know that humans only serve one true purpose.”

The human’s eyes widened in understanding, and for a second Andrew thought he might finally start behaving like a human was meant to in the presence of a predator, but instead he sat up fully, bringing his face within a few inches of Andrew’s and sending another wave of his sweet scent washing over Andrew.

“Kevin has to get tired of me first. Weren’t you supposed to buy me new clothes?”

The sudden urge to sink his teeth into the human’s neck hit Andrew like a wave of dizziness, the world spinning for a moment as he practically tasted the warm burst of blood that could coat his mouth in seconds if he only moved forward. The human finally seemed to realize the danger he was in, body locking up, and the sour spike of fear was enough to snap Andrew out of his momentary bloodlust. He wasn’t like the weaker members of the Courtyard, didn’t feel any sort of empathy or guilt for the humans he killed, but he wasn’t Riko, either. He had self-control. He wasn’t going to kill Kevin’s new pet just because he smelled good.

Andrew forced the tension in his body to relax and tried to project boredom again. “Was I?”

“So that I wouldn’t look like I crawled out of a gutter.”

Andrew let his eyes drag over the human’s form: the ragged, bloody sweatshirt, the torn jeans, the mud caked so deeply into his skin that it was nearly impossible to see its original shade.

“I doubt new clothes will do much to rectify that, but we can try. Shall we?” Andrew stepped back and offered his hand to the human. A little taste wouldn’t hurt. Just enough to take the edge off.

The human hesitated just a second too long and Andrew snapped, snatching his hand and dragging him from the bed. It only took a moment to draw the blood out, the sensation hitting Andrew with a heady rush and making him tighten his grip as the human tried to jerk away. Andrew pulled him in automatically, opening his mouth to breathe in the scent of the human’s neck, the world flaring around him as he inhaled.

“What you smell like to me, Neil Josten, is a complication. But the Courtyard has its own way of dealing with those.”

His teeth grazed against the delicate skin of the human’s neck, the urge to bite down and gorge himself on even more of the exhilarating blood nearly overwhelming, but Andrew forced himself back, releasing the human and watching him stumble back.

Andrew’s heart was racing, too fast for just the excitement of the hunt, the room nearly spinning around him. Just a taste, he had said, and that was all he took, but he still felt like he was about to vibrate out his skin, everything suddenly too loud and too much. Andrew fought to retain a veneer of calm, considering his hand and then running his tongue along his bottom lip as if he might taste a drop of that tantalizing liquid that had never even made it into his mouth.

Sweet blood. He should have known. He would have, if he hadn’t been so distracted by the very scent for which the human’s kind was named.

“Well. You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Andrew asked, careful to keep the frantic energy that pounded through his body from his voice.

“You’re the one who just attacked me!” The pounding of the human’s heart and the quiver in his voice were not helping Andrew resist the urge to pounce.

“All I did was have a taste. Enough to know why Kevin doesn’t think you smell like prey.”

Did Kevin even know about sweet bloods? Myths about the human’s kind were well-known among the _Sanguinati_, but Andrew had no idea if the Wolves had similar stories. If they did, Kevin obviously hadn’t made the connection. Trust him to accidentally hire a blood prophet as their ‘human’ liaison.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the human snapped, wiping the remaining blood on his sweatshirt and only adding to the pandemonium of smells that would make it impossible for almost any Other to ignore him.

“Maybe not. But sooner or later the truth will come out. If I were you, Neil Josten, I’d do my best to make sure the truth isn’t something that will get you killed.” Not that the human had much chance of doing that. He would probably be dead within the week.

“I just want to do my job. The one Kevin hired me to do. So unless you’re going to fire me because my blood tastes strange, I’d like to get on with things.”

Andrew considered him for a moment, the glare that might have been intended to be intimidating, the dark circles under his eyes, the rattle of his breath. He might be entertaining, if nothing else.

“When I fire you, you’ll be aware of it.” Andrew turned and began to walk towards the door, pausing when the human remained frozen on his bed. “Well? I thought you wanted to get some new clothes. I don’t have all day.”

The human only hesitated a moment longer before scrambling after Andrew, and Andrew didn’t turn back to look again as he led him out of the apartment. The sounds of his labored breathing and thumping heart were more than enough to know he was following. And even if Andrew couldn’t hear him, there was no way he couldn’t smell him.

Would anyone else realize why the human smelled so strange? Kevin hadn’t described his scent as sweet; only off-putting in its distance from the typical prey smell. Maybe the scent only affected the _Sanguinati_, although Andrew was relatively sure that consuming the blood would have the same effect on any of the Others. A rabid _terra indigene_ might cause a few problems for the Courtyard. It would certainly be very stressful for Kevin, maybe even for Riko.

The human seemed oblivious to his potential effects on the Courtyard. He followed Andrew obediently into the store and accepted the clothing that Andrew thrust at him with minimal complaints, only resisting briefly when Andrew insisted that he change before they went to the liaison office. He truly had no idea what he smelled like. Even if he were completely normal, the dried blood and thick scent clinging to his sweatshirt were enough to be distracting to nearly any Other he approached. Andrew had to subtly bare his teeth at the Hawk tending the register to make her stop staring at the human and scenting the air and ring up their purchases.

Once the clothes were taken care of, Andrew took the human to the liaison office, Kevin’s agitated scent easy to discern before they were even through the back door. The Wolf was currently berating Nicky over losing their newest pet; it apparently hadn’t occurred to Kevin that he might be at fault for the human’s disappearance. Really, he couldn’t keep coming to Andrew with all of his inconsequential, boring problems and not expect Andrew to take note of the first one that was even a little interesting.

“Andrew,” Kevin growled upon their arrival, his hackles clearly raised even in this form.

“Kevin. What's this I hear about you losing your pet human? Pretty early, even for you.”

The bitterness of Kevin’s irritation was so integral to his scent that Andrew wasn’t sure if he would recognize the Wolf without it. It was still satisfying to see how much stronger he could make it.

“Nicky went to get Neil from his apartment this morning to get him new clothes and show him the Liaison Office,” Kevin said, jaw flexing. “He was not there.”

“You said Kevin sent you to get me!” the human said, turning to glare at Andrew with a surprising amount of betrayal for someone who should have known better than to trust him.

“Did I? I don't remember saying anything about being sent. You can't blame me for your own foolish assumptions.”

"This is not amusing, Andrew," Kevin hissed. “We cannot keep doing this. None of the delivery men will even come into the office anymore after Aaron's stunt with that cop. None of the Courtyard's packages are getting delivered; people are starting to get annoyed. Riko wants it fixed.”

Andrew nearly laughed at the look in Kevin’s eyes, as if the mention of Riko was somehow supposed to strike Andrew with the same irrational cowardice that it gave Kevin. “Oh, _Riko_ wants it fixed? Why didn't you say anything, Kevin? You know I would do anything to make things easier for our beloved leader. I guess I just didn't get the message. Communication can be hard, you know, when the pack leader is never with the pack.”

“Maybe he would not have to spend so much time outside of the Courtyard if your kind would stop causing so much trouble-”

“We're causing trouble?” Andrew could feel himself beginning to lose a bit of the control he had reclaimed since tasting the human’s blood. “Kevin, we're playing nice. If you don't appreciate our efforts, you can always send Riko over to the Chambers and he can discuss it with us in person.”

“Neil!” Nicky stepped forward suddenly, the desperation in his voice clear. “I'm Nicky! I would have introduced myself earlier, but the schedule got a bit confused. Why don't I show you the ropes so you can get started with your job as soon as possible?”

Andrew didn’t have much patience for Nicky’s inability to handle conflict at the best of times; he wasn’t going to stick around and listen to Nicky attempt to smooth away the real problems in the Courtyard with empty platitudes and jokes.

“I’ll let you handle the training portion,” he said, saluting Kevin in the way he knew the Wolf hated. “I’ve gotten what I came for.”

He could feel Kevin’s glare on his back as he left, circling around the back of the office to reach A Little Bite just as the morning rush was beginning to dissipate. There was a human working the register, the annoying blonde that Aaron had begun forgetting to hide, but she disappeared into the kitchen the moment she noticed Andrew, Renee emerging a second later to take her place.

“Andrew!”

Her smile was enough to ease some of the tension from the human’s blood that Kevin had brought back, and the dark chocolate muffin that she produced a second later diffused the rest of it. She circled the counter to join him, taking a seat at their usual spot in the corner and sliding the muffin over to him. Andrew bit into it immediately, focusing on the sugary sweetness and pointedly not thinking of any other sweet things until the weight of Renee’s stare became too much to ignore.

“Kevin hired a new human liaison.”

“Really? When?”

“Last night. Some stray that he found in a storm. Calls himself Neil Josten, although he’s lying about that as well.”

“What else is he lying about?”

Andrew shrugged, taking another bite of the muffin. “Ask him a question. You’ll see what I mean.”

“Is he dangerous?”

Andrew thought of the wild rush that had filled him when he tasted the human’s blood, of how much worse it would be if someone made the mistake of actually feeding on him.

“Not to you.”

“To the Courtyard?”

“I’m sure our fearless leader will protect the Courtyard from any danger that might befall it.”

“Riko? Or Kevin?”

“That is the question, isn’t it?”

Renee’s lips twitched in a half-smile. “You’re not as good at pretending not to care as you think you are.”

“I don’t care.”

“Then why bother with the human?”

Andrew shrugged again, stuffing the rest of the muffin into his mouth and standing, brushing a hand against Renee’s shoulder in a small sign of trust that he wouldn’t show anyone else in the Courtyard. “I don’t care about the human. I just think he’s interesting.”

“That’s high praise, coming from you.”

“I wouldn’t call it praise,” Andrew said. “I doubt he’ll be able to hold my attention much longer.”

In a week, Neil Josten would probably be dead, just a brief interlude in the monotony of the Courtyard. Andrew probably wouldn’t even remember his fake name.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your response to the first chapter! I hope you enjoy this update!

The human was still alive. ‘Neil Josten’ was still alive, not only still breathing but doing so in the Inner Courtyard, delivering packages to predators that would hunt him in a second if the whimsy struck them, turning his back on angry _Sanguinati_ and meeting Andrew’s eyes like he didn’t fear for his life. It was irritating, more than anything else. Everywhere Andrew went, all anyone seemed to be talking about was the Courtyard’s new pet human.

“He’s so sweet,” Dan had said to Matt in the bookstore, unaware of Andrew’s presence. “Like a bunny, but I don’t even want to eat him.”

“The packages are finally being delivered,” Kevin had told Andrew, smug, as if Andrew had been the only one to ever have doubts about their new hire. “The human is a good investment for the Courtyard.”

“He’s scared,” Renee had said over coffee, her face soft as they watched Neil deliver a package to Dan in the bookstore, “but he’s not angry about it. Rare, in humans. Usually they’d rather hate us than fear us.”

And now, after work and alone in the Chambers, the one place where Andrew might have expected to find a little peace and quiet, the alpha of the Courtyard wanted to talk about Neil Josten as well.

“What do you think of the new human liaison?” Riko asked, inspecting his nails and trying and failing to look casual.

“I don’t. When have you ever cared what I think?”

“I’m the Alpha,” Riko smiled, teeth bared. “I appreciate knowing what’s going on in the Courtyard.”

“Kevin told you he was hiring a new human liaison. I watched him leave the message himself. Maybe you would have known sooner if you ever bothered picking up the phone.”

“I was aware he found someone for the position. Surprised, I suppose, that such an irritating specimen has been walking around the Courtyard for a week and you haven’t dealt with him yet.”

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Dealt with him?”

“The human doesn’t even know how to respect the Alpha of the Courtyard. I find it hard to believe he’s extended such respect to you.”

“You’re mixing us up again, Riko. I’m not the one who needs everyone around me belly-up and begging for mercy.”

Riko’s smile twitched but remained fixed on his face, but he couldn’t hide the bitterness welling up in his scent. “We may have our disagreements, but we at least both know humans’ true place.”

Andrew tilted his head and gave a noncommittal grunt.

“He’s prey,” Riko said. “He seems to have forgotten that, and in a Courtyard no less. If you were to remind him of his place, I would consider it you doing what’s necessary for the safety of the Courtyard. I would make sure Kevin saw it this way as well.”

Andrew ran his tongue along his teeth, picturing the jump of the human’s pulse and the rabbit-quick stutter of his heartbeat almost without meaning to. He couldn’t drain the human, not without losing the control he worked so hard to maintain, but another small taste wouldn’t hurt. And then he could snap the human’s neck, rid himself of the irritating distraction and return the Courtyard to normal.

It was tempting. Too tempting, really; the thought of one human’s blood shouldn’t affect him like this. Besides, Neil Josten wasn’t his most immediate concern at the moment.

“Why don’t you kill him yourself, if you’re so eager to see him dead?”

Riko waved the idea away. “I have greater concerns than a stray human that doesn’t know his place. I thought you might enjoy the task.”

“And you’ve always been so concerned with my pleasure.”

“It was a suggestion,” Riko snapped. “Do what you want with the human; I don’t care. But if he doesn’t remember what he is before long, he’ll be dead regardless.”

On that, at least, they were in agreement.

* * *

“I won’t run,” Neil had said, staring back at Andrew with flinty eyes and a steady heartbeat. “I’ll keep up my end of the deal if you keep me alive.”

It really shouldn’t have been that hard, keeping one measly human alive in the Courtyard. Neil Josten might have been prey determined to surround himself with as many predators as possible, but for some inexplicable reason, the majority of the predators he came in contact with seemed more inclined to adopt him than eat him. Matt had leapt at the chance to guard the Liaison Office after Andrew had brought up the idea of more security with Kevin, Renee insisted on feeding Neil homemade lunches every day to make up for his obvious impediment in the kitchen, and even Kevin had a distant fondness of the human born mostly from his rare competence at his job. Andrew wasn’t sure if he had ever had so many unknowing allies in the Courtyard.

And yet somehow Neil Josten was causing Andrew more stress than he had experienced in years. He couldn’t remember caring about something like this, good or bad, since before they came to the Courtyard. Even Riko, and Kevin’s infuriating subservience to him, had been an annoyance at best, a toxic cycle that he knew couldn’t go on forever, but something he had been willing to merely prod at for the time being. Neil Josten was a human, irrelevant, nothing… and Andrew was losing sleep over him.

“What are you doing here?”

Andrew didn’t jump at the sound of the Wolf’s voice, but he could tell from Kevin’s pleased smirk that the stutter in his heartbeat gave away his surprise. Kevin had obviously tried to sneak up on him on purpose; there was no reason for him to approach Andrew’s position in a hidden corner of Howling Good Reads from behind unless he didn’t want to be seen.

“I half-own the place,” Andrew snapped, not giving Kevin the satisfaction of turning to look at him. “Is it wrong that I take some interest in how it’s run?”

“Last time you took an interest, we had to replace a whole shelf from stains.”

“The man wanted to see a ‘real vampire.’ Isn’t it our job to humor customers?”

“If you are going to pretend that you weren’t watching the human, you could at least come up with a better excuse.”

“This place is full of humans,” Andrew said. “You’ll have to be a bit more specific.”

“The human you have not stopped watching for the past week.”

The human in question was leaning over the counter beside the register, two packages tucked under his arm and deep in conversation with Dan. The back of his sweater had ridden up to reveal a sliver of skin and the vulnerable knob of his spine. Andrew could taste the sticky sweetness of his scent every time he inhaled.

“Why ask what I’m doing here if you were already so sure you knew?”

“I thought I might give you a chance to be honest.”

“Honest,” Andrew sneered. “Is that what you want from me? You’ve never seemed to like my honesty before.”

Kevin huffed out a breath of frustration from behind him, the bitterness in his scent spiking. “Does every conversation have to come back to this? Riko is not even here.”

“Who said anything about Riko?”

“Fine, let’s talk about the human, then!” Kevin snapped. “I told you he was off-limits when I hired him; that has not changed.”

“Off-limits?” Andrew asked, finally turning to look at Kevin as Neil turned to leave the bookshop, completely oblivious to the argument concerning him. “Have you told Dan and Matt that? Renee?”

“They have no intentions of killing him.”

“I wouldn’t kill him.” Andrew raised his lips in a not-quite snarl, flashing his fangs. “I’m only messy when I want to be.”

The rumble in the back of Kevin’s throat might have been enough to make one of the other Wolves back down, but Kevin always seemed to forget that Andrew was only a member of his pack in the loosest sense.

“Riko may not be here, but I am still second in command. You would do well to remember that.”

“I won’t follow Riko’s lackey. If you’re looking for blind obedience, go find one of your other employees.”

“Get out.” Kevin’s eyes flashed red, the snarl in his voice deepening.

“I don’t think I will,” Andrew said, meeting his eyes calmly. “It’s half my store. I think I’ll stay awhile; catch up on inventory.”

He turned his back on the Wolf, a dare that Andrew half-hoped he would accept, and walked steadily to the back of the store, a room he hadn’t bothered to enter in months. His gums ached as he passed the all-too-familiar scent by the cash register, his heart beating faster than it had in his entire conversation with Kevin. He had the feeling he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight either.

* * *

Andrew stayed in the backroom long past closing time, flipping open every book to read the first few pages and then tossing it back in a slightly different place, just enough to drive Kevin crazy without any clear evidence that he had intended to. He didn’t want to go back to the Chambers, didn’t want to join the others to hunt some dull animal that would barely even give them a good chase. He hadn’t fed in several days, at least not the kind of food his body truly needed, but the idea of deer blood, or even worse, bagged human blood, made his stomach turn.

This was one of the few times that Andrew regretted not having at least a few more connections among the Others. The only person he could think who might have answers for his questions was Renee, old enough to surely have come across someone like Neil before, but he didn’t know how he could ask without revealing Neil’s true nature. Questions about sweet bloods, about whether their blood brought more than just mania and insanity, about whether those who survived their first taste spent the rest of their lives craving more, would only bring more questions.

Besides, Andrew had only had a taste. A few drops were nowhere near enough to form an addiction, no matter how potent the blood. He might be distracted for a few weeks, but the effect that Neil’s scent had on him couldn’t last for much longer.

Something slammed into the backdoor of the shop with a bang, ripping Andrew from his distraction. The world came pouring back in: the frantic pounding of a heart, the sour scent of fear that nearly overpowered an all-too-familiar scent, two more unfamiliar scents mixed with the tang of sweat and gunpowder. The door opened and slammed shut again, the sound of panting filling the bookstore, and Andrew shifted almost automatically, his body dissolving into shadow to pass through the wall and hover unseen near the register.

Neil stood a few feet from the backdoor, heart pounding and breath coming out in ragged gasps, looking around the bookstore frantically. A second later, a man in all black burst through the front door, gun raised and pointed directly at Neil.

“Drop your weapon!”

Neil stumbled back against the wall, and Andrew noticed the knife clutched in his hands for the first time, his knuckles white around the hilt from the strength of his grip.

“Drop the knife or I shoot!"

The knife clattered to the floor. Andrew drifted closer, still hidden in the darkness of the bookstore, watching the scene unfold in front of him. If Neil’s father truly wanted him alive, then the man wouldn’t shoot. If Neil had lied about that, then he’d broken the terms of their agreement anyway. In that case, there would be no need to interfere.

“Don’t try to run! Keep your hands where I can see them!”

Neil obeyed, raising his faintly trembling hands above his head.

“Get on your knees.”

“This isn’t going to work,” Neil said, voice surprisingly steady. “The Others will-”

“I said get on your fucking knees!”

This time Neil obeyed, slowly lowering himself to the ground as another man entered the bookstore, dressed nearly identically to the first. Andrew drifted closer until he was floating only a few feet behind the backs of the two intruders.

“Is it him?” The new arrival demanded.

“What do you think, genius?”

“This isn’t going to work,” Neil repeated. “You’ll never make it out of the Courtyard alive.”

“Yeah? You going to stop us, kid?”

“I’m not the one you should be worried about.”

The first man laughed mockingly. “Right, the Others.” He peered around the bookstore exaggeratedly, eyes passing right through Andrew’s smoky form. “I don’t see them here, do you?”

“They’ll know you were here,” Neil insisted.

“And by the time they figure it out, we’ll be long gone.”

Neil’s scent spiked with anxiety. “They’ll still find you,” he said, but the tremor in his voice was becoming more and more evident. “Even if you’ve taken me, they’ll be able to track down your scent. You won’t live through the next 24 hours.”

“The Others can track scents through the snow on a highway, huh? What makes you think they’re even going to bother looking? They’ll just assume you got tired of the job and ran. We’ll be sure to help them in that assumption.”

“They’ll know something was wrong.”

“Kid, why would they care?”

The second man moved forward and Andrew moved forward with him, encasing his body in his own diffuse form and forcefully dragging his blood to the surface, a sudden rush of energy coursing through him as he fed. He let the man drop, blood still spilling from his skin, as he materialized a foot or so from the twitching body.

“Oh I don’t know,” he said, nearly giddy with a hunt that actually made his pulse race. “I think you’ll find we get a little territorial.”

The first man fired his gun wildly in Andrew’s direction, but Andrew was already moving again, shifting into smoke and then shifting again just behind the man, grabbing his prey by the stomach and head and tearing into the tender flesh of his neck. Blood spilled across Andrew’s face and neck as he fed, the man’s heart still frantically pumping to push wave after wave of warm blood into Andrew’s mouth. He gripped the man until the pumping slowed, tossing the slumped body aside and turning to face Neil.

“You should really be more careful about bringing guests into the Courtyard, Neil,” he said, moving forward almost automatically to the last frantically beating heart in the room, all of his senses urging him onward. “We don’t deal well with people who forget their manners.”

Neil closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the wall, exposing the vulnerable curve of his neck in an invitation so blatant that he couldn’t have meant it. Andrew’s whole jaw ached, the blood he had gorged himself on only moments ago suddenly nothing compared to the oblivious human in front of him. The relief of feeding was gone; now all his body wanted to do was finish the hunt.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Neil said, none of the fear that should have been there present in his voice. “No more visitors.”

Andrew drew even with him, crouching down until they were level and reaching out without thinking, gripping Neil’s chin to tug his head back into a position that didn’t make him look so much like prey. Neil opened his eyes and stared back at him, irises still a shocking blue that Andrew never quite expected and pupils blown wide in the darkness of the store.

Andrew forced himself to focus on the task at hand, speaking half to question Neil and half just to drown out the sound of Neil’s heartbeat. “Your father’s men?”

“I think so. I don’t know whose else they could be.” Neil’s breath was beginning to even, his body starting to relax as if the most dangerous person in the room wasn’t still right in front of him.

“How did they find you?”

“I don’t know.”

Neil shrugged as he spoke, and Andrew’s grip tightened without his say so, pure instinct telling him to keep his prey’s body still. He forced himself to loosen it again.

“Not good enough.”

“I don’t know how they found me, Andrew. My father has men everywhere; maybe they tracked me down to here while I was running, maybe one of the delivery drivers turned me in, maybe it was just a lucky guess.”

“Why did you come here, then?” Why here, of all the places in the Courtyard, the one place where Andrew was, the one place he wouldn’t have been any other night?

“The Liaison Office was locked. This was the first place I could think of where I might be able to stall them for a little while.”

“Why not your apartment?” The walls of Neil’s apartment might not keep Andrew out, but they should have protected him from other humans.

“They picked the lock to the building. I ran before they could do the same to my apartment.”

“How did you know they were in the building?”

“I heard them. They tried the Courtyard entrance first, and I saw one of them from my window.”

“It’s late; why were you up?” Andrew couldn’t explain why he was questioning Neil so much, only that the interrogation at least distracted him from what he really wanted to do.

“I couldn’t sleep. My skin felt weird.”

“Did you make a cut?”

“No.”

Andrew frowned and inhaled, trying to catch the scent of any exposed blood from Neil, but if the human had any cuts, the thick scent of all the blood Andrew had spilled covered it up.

“No, Andrew. If I had, maybe I would have seen this coming. But I didn’t know they were here until it was too late. Why would I lie about this?”

“It’s in your nature.” Just as it was in Andrew’s nature to eliminate this new uncertainty in the Courtyard, not to protect it.

“I’m not lying to you. I’m not stupid.”

“Copious amounts of evidence say otherwise.”

“Fine, how about this? I’m not lying to you because I don’t have a death wish. You promised to protect me. Why would I try to stop you from doing that?”

Andrew stared at the human in front of him, trying to catch the lie in the shift of his gaze or the beat of his heart. Fear still tinged Neil’s usually sweet scent, adrenaline fading and turning sour, but it wasn’t for Andrew. Stupid, certainly, but not lying. Not that Andrew could tell.

Andrew finally released Neil’s chin and stood, taking a step back from the pulse that still called to him. “Next time your skin ‘feels weird’, you come to me about it.”

Neil nodded, standing up as well and looking around the bookstore. Someone else’s blood was smeared across his chin from where Andrew had gripped it, giving him the appearance of having just fed himself. Andrew very carefully did not reach out to wipe the blood away.

“How am I going to explain this to Kevin?”

“I’ll take care of Kevin. You go back to your apartment.” Back to his apartment, so Andrew could stop smelling him and finally think clearly. “Fix anything they might have broken. Go to sleep, and when you wake up, act like nothing happened.”

“What if they come back? We have no way of knowing these were the only ones.”

“If they come back, I’ll deal with it,” Andrew told him. “Nothing is going to enter the apartments for the rest of the night except for you. I’ll make sure of it.”

Neil nodded once, still hesitant, and then turned to stumble out of the front door that still hung gaping open. Andrew watched him go, waited until he had a small lead, and then followed after, far enough that the human wouldn’t notice him but close enough to interfere if anyone was foolish enough to try and attack him for the second time that night. He watched Neil enter the efficiency apartments, hovered under the window until he heard the click of Neil locking his door, and watched the faint yellow light of the window until it clicked off and Neil’s heartbeat slowed in sleep.

He would have to take care of the bookstore eventually, preferably before any of the Others arrived. The bodies would be easy enough to dispose of; the butcher always appreciated new meat, but the scent of blood would permeate the building for days. He would call Kevin and offer to open up the shop himself; the human employees wouldn’t notice the recent massacre. Kevin would be suspicious, but Andrew could explain it all soon enough when they discussed Neil moving apartments. There was no way he was letting Neil stay here.

It would be work. More work than Andrew had bothered with in years, probably. Best to get started on it soon, before daylight brought with it all the chaos of the Others and humans that entered the Courtyard. But he could wait here a little bit longer. He could listen to this heartbeat a little bit longer. He could make sure it kept beating.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait between chapters! School has gotten really busy for me and unfortunately that's not likely to change before the end of the semester, so there will probably be more long gaps between chapters. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Content warnings are included in the end note.

Andrew smelled Neil from inside the Chambers, his sweet scent thick with tension and a touch of fear. For a moment, he considered ignoring the human, staying inside and saving himself from the irritation that was sure to follow. Neil was probably just here to deliver a package, and the tension was completely unrelated. Frankly, a human in the Courtyard should always be this tense. It was more concerning that Neil was only smart enough to be afraid now.

The scent remained, the sour tinge of fear growing stronger, and Andrew gave up on a quiet afternoon. He shifted to pass through the walls of the Chambers, remaining in his cloudy state as he approached Neil and his irate twin.

“I think you’re overestimating my brother’s interest in you,” Aaron was saying, hand extended towards Neil’s throat as he moved forward.

Neil stumbled back, a clumsy attempt at fleeing that Aaron clearly only allowed because he liked to play with his food. “You really don’t want to do that.”

“Don’t I? Why not?”

Andrew slid back into his body, solidifying against a pillar of the Chambers and crossing his arms casually. “Because I would be awfully annoyed with you.”

Aaron twitched, turning to face Andrew with a snarl that was a touch too close to a challenge but taking a step back from Neil all the same. “I didn’t know you were so protective of the human.”

Andrew pulled his lips back to flash his teeth. “I’m not. Call it territorial.”

Aaron’s eyes dropped down a touch, still not submission but not the fight they both knew would have to happen eventually. “I thought he was Kevin’s pet project.”

Andrew moved forward, placing himself between Neil and Aaron, facing Aaron. “Kevin doesn’t get to have all the fun. Besides, these days it seems like everyone’s got a pet human.”

Aaron finally looked away fully, his scent souring at the allusion to the waitress he kept forgetting to hide. Andrew had been too distracted by other humans in the Courtyard to deal with her yet, but that wouldn’t last forever.

“He should just be respectful, that’s all,” Aaron mumbled.

“I’ll be sure to discuss it with him.” Andrew turned away, an obvious dismissal, and refocused his attention on Neil. “What was so important that you had to come annoy my brother about it?”

“I need to talk to you,” Neil said, rubbing his hand up and down his arm almost without seeming to realize it.

“So I gathered.”

Neil looked at Aaron meaningfully. “Alone.”

“You won’t find any privacy in the Chambers. Can it wait?”

“Not really.” The agitation in Neil’s scent said that he was telling the truth.

“Fine. We’ll go back to your apartment. This better be worth my time.”

Neil hesitated. “I’m still technically working.”

Andrew couldn’t help but roll his eyes. How was it that Neil was so talented at picking the wrong thing to be worried about? He would pick a fight with an irritated vampire without issue but balked at the idea of missing work.

“And I could technically be considered your boss,” Andrew said. “I’m giving you the rest of the afternoon off; let’s go.”

Neil let Andrew take the driver’s seat of the BOW without question, sitting beside him and gripping the side of the door tightly as Andrew pressed his foot to the accelerator and peeled away from the Chambers. The BOW’s were frustrating, never fast enough to justify their use unless the load was too big to carry, nothing compared to the speed of the hunt. Andrew barely took his foot off the pedal for the entire drive to the Wolf Complex, even the rickety vehicle’s full speed frustratingly slow.

He was out of the BOW the moment the engine stopped, frustration with more than just the vehicle keeping him a few steps ahead of Neil, dissolving to pass through the door while the human struggled with the lock and settling down on the couch. It was a bit better, here in Neil’s apartment where there were fewer scents of others infringing upon his territory, but being in Neil’s space only increased the nearly headache-inducing sweetness of the human’s smell.

“This better be worth my while,” Andrew snapped. “Aaron will be obnoxious about this for the next week at least.”

“You told me to come to you if my skin started feeling weird again.”

The agitation in Neil’s voice made Andrew sit up fully, distracted for a moment from his irritation. “Does it?”

“Worse than the night the men broke into my apartment.”

Andrew gestured for Neil to join him on the couch and the human obeyed, heart pumping a little faster when Andrew grabbed his arm. Andrew pushed up the sleeve, sliding his thumb up the skin of his arm slowly as if he might be able to feel the prophecies in the same way he could feel Neil’s pulse just beneath his skin.

“Tell me what it feels like,” Andrew said, his hand still wrapped around Neil’s arm.

“Like someone is pricking me with a needle a thousand times. Like there’s something beneath my skin, trying to claw its way out.”

Neil had begun to bounce his leg nervously, as if only second away from trying to run, seemingly unaware of the motion. Andrew forcefully stopped himself from squeezing tighter.

“Did you ever feel it before you came to the Courtyard?”

“I’ve never gone this long without a cut before coming to the Courtyard.” Neil paused for a moment. “Sometimes my mother seemed to know when something was going to go wrong. She would make a cut even when it wasn’t time yet and have me listen to the prophecy.”

Neil’s gaze grew distant, mind obviously somewhere other than his small apartment, and Andrew spoke to bring him back again. “So you think something bad is going to happen.”

Neil’s eyes returned to Andrew. “I know something bad is going to happen.”

“How specific are the prophecies? Will it happen to you, or could there be a plane crash fifty miles away that makes you feel like this?”

Neil hesitated, drawing his lower lip into his mouth in trepidation. “I’m not sure. The prophecies aren’t always about me. If I try to make the cut for someone, and if they’re what I’m thinking about when the blood spills, the prophecies are usually about their future. That’s how my father made so much money; his clients would be in the room with my mother and me when we made the cuts.

“While we were on the run, my mother and I were always focused on our own survival, so that’s what the prophecies were about. But I’m not trying for this prophecy, so I don’t think I can control its contents. Given what happened last time, though, I’d say it’s probably my own life that’s in danger.”

This time Andrew couldn’t help but grip Neil’s arm even tighter. “And you want to make a cut.”

“I want to know what’s going to happen. It doesn’t seem very likely that I’ll get lucky twice.”

“And you don’t think I can protect you?” He didn’t mean to sound as offended as he did.

“Not if you don’t know what you’re protecting me from. What would you do, follow me around every moment of the day until whatever I’m feeling happens? Wait until I lose it and make the cut anyway?”

Andrew wouldn’t mind following Neil around, not if it taught the idiotic humans surrounding the Courtyard that Neil wasn’t theirs to take. It wouldn’t be horribly different from what he was already doing.

“Do you think you’ll lose it?” Andrew asked instead.

“The _cassandra sangue_ aren’t meant to go this long without cutting. I think, eventually, the prophecy will find a way out.”

And if Neil did lose it? If he spilled his blood and lost control, would the Others in the Courtyard be able to control themselves? Would Andrew?

“How would you do it?” Andrew asked.

“Release the prophecy? I have a razor. It was the one my mother always used. I would make a cut on my arm, where the skin hurts the worse right now. Just an inch, just deep enough to draw blood.”

“And what happens to you when you make the cut?” What would happen to Andrew?

“The prophecies come in snatches. Disjointed images, sometimes sounds. If I say them out loud, and someone is around to hear them, then I’ll be able to remember all of the details. That’s why I need you.”

“And if no one listens?”

“Then I speak them out loud and forget them, or I don’t speak, and I feel like I’m dying. I’m not sure if I could stop myself from speaking.”

An inch, Neil had said. Just enough to draw blood. Still more than enough to make Andrew’s teeth ache at just the thought of it. And Neil would be vulnerable when the prophecies struck, even more so than he usually was. Andrew had never bothered to deny himself what his hunger demanded before, had never even tried. Neil, with his irresistibly sweet blood and inability to recognize the right kinds of danger, was not the place to start.

Andrew opened his mouth to say so, to tell Neil to get Renee, or Dan, or even Kevin. “Do it,” he said instead.

Neil’s shoulders slumped in relief and he withdrew a small razor from his pocket, placing it against the skin of his arm and then pausing to look at Andrew once more.

“Will you be okay?”

“I’m not the one with the razor,” Andrew snapped, the promise of fresh blood already making him antsy.

“But the blood. Will you be okay with the blood?”

Trust Neil to pick now to finally remember what Andrew was. If Andrew was going to back out, to make the smart, rational decision, now was the time.

“I’m not a child, Neil. Some of us can exhibit basic self-control even when we do smell food. Although given what Renee has said of your eating habits, I can understand why you wouldn’t be familiar with that concept.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t want to be trapped in the room with a feral vampire,” Neil said, so obviously unaware of how close his words were to the truth.

“You’re trapped in the room with me either way, Neil. Stop stalling.” Stop giving Andrew even more time to think about what an insanely horrible idea this was.

Neil hesitated one last moment, watching Andrew with trepidation but still far too much trust, and then dug the knife in, a short slice that was over before the first drop of blood began to well up from the wound.

The smell hit Andrew instantly, a hundred times stronger than it usually was, so potent that he nearly doubled over at the raw ache in his stomach. It overpowered his senses, drowned out sight and sound and touch for a moment, the world narrowing down to this want, this need. Neil was oblivious to Andrew’s momentary weakness, eyes shut as he arched against the couch, head thrown back and mouth hanging open to let out breathy pants.

Neil said something, a word, maybe, but Andrew was too dizzy to hear it, eyes caught on the blood beading up on Neil’s arm. Just a taste. Just one taste, just the blood that was already spilled, and then he could stop. He could concentrate, could use the strength the blood would give him to rip apart whatever dared threaten Neil. Could do anything, with that kind of power rushing through his veins.

Neil was still speaking, somewhere far away, something about roses and mirrors and corpses, but Andrew was already moving forward, hand closing around the back of Neil’s neck to pull it back and bare his throat, a motion so natural to the hunt that it no longer required conscious thought. Neil’s eyes flashed open and he lurched against the grip, thrashing wildly. For one horrible second Andrew’s hand tightened, an instinctual response to keep his prey still, and then he came back to himself and let go, jerking away from Neil and trying desperately to regain control over his own pounding pulse.

Neil stared at him, eyes wide and panting, and Andrew forced himself to meet his gaze, to not look down. He moved back even further on the couch, every muscle held tight to keep himself from lurching forward again. Neil looked down, finally noticing the blood trickling down his arm, and drew two fingers over it, smearing it across the skin and sending another sickly sweet wave of scent washing over Andrew.

Andrew’s eyes dropped to the bloody fingers involuntarily, mouth clenching against the need to bite. “Clean yourself up,” he forced out.

Neil looked from his fingers to Andrew, still showing no sign of understanding. No sign of running, like any human with a lick of sense would.

“Now, Neil,” Andrew bit out, and Neil finally seemed to hear him, standing up and stumbling towards the sink.

Andrew watched his back as he worked, the sound of the running faucet breaking the silence and the scent of blood diluting slightly. His gaze focused on the back of Neil’s neck without meaning to, the vulnerable sliver of skin that he had held only moments before. He could be over there in an instant, too quickly for Neil to realize, teeth sunk into his neck before the human had time to so much as flinch.

Neil shut the water off and Andrew looked away, staring pointedly at the wall even as Neil came over to sit across from him once again.

“Did it work?” Andrew asked, fighting to keep his voice even.

“Did you hear me speaking?”

“I heard you stringing together words. Was there a meaning somewhere in there?”

Neil nodded. “I was right. Something bad is going to happen.”

Something bad was going to happen. Andrew breathed in slowly, jaw still clenched, forcing himself to think beyond the immediate need to hunt. Something bad was certainly going to happen, with his mind racing like this and his hands on the verge of trembling and his teeth aching with the need to bite, rip, tear.

It just wasn’t going to happen to Neil.

* * *

The adrenaline didn’t truly fade for hours after the fight. Andrew sat at Kevin’s right in the conference room and didn’t bother to hide the focus of his attention, eyes on Neil the entire time, like his gaze could somehow mark the human as off-limits for the Others in the room. Aaron had been the one to taste his blood but Andrew could still feel a feral energy coursing through his veins, keeping him on edge the entire time, ready to leap across the table every time someone so much as suggested that Neil wouldn’t be staying in the Courtyard, where he belonged, under Andrew’s protection.

The buzzing energy remained even after Kevin declared his final verdict and Dan led Neil from the room, keeping a careful eye on Andrew like she wasn’t sure if the _Sanguinati_ was an ally or just another potential threat. He wasn’t sure which idea rankled more, that he might be a danger to Neil or that Dan could stop him if he was.

Kevin, Aaron, and Andrew lingered in the room long after the others had left, the tension between them steadily mounting. Andrew finally switched his attention back to Aaron, some of the rage from earlier returning to him, making his fingers and teeth buzz with the kind of energy that demanded to be released.

Kevin glanced between the two of them, hesitating at the door. “Don’t kill each other.”

“The blood’s worn off,” Andrew said, not looking away from Aaron. “He couldn’t if he tried.”

“That was directed at you, too, Andrew.”

Andrew curled his lips up to flash his teeth. “This is a problem for the _Sanguinati_, Kevin. You may control the Courtyard, but you don’t control the Chambers.”

Kevin wavered in the door, still obviously reluctant, but eventually moved away, leaving the two of them alone for the first time since Kevin and Renee had ripped them apart at the Liaison office. For a moment, they only watched each other in silence.

“I can’t believe you’re really going to–” Aaron began, but Andrew cut him off with a growl.

“Did I hit your head too hard? Have you forgotten who speaks for the _Sanguinati_?”

“Our leader is supposed to have _our_ best interests at heart, not some idiotic human that can’t keep himself alive and drags everyone else into his mess!”

“Humans? Is that really what you want to talk about, Aaron, inadvisable attachments to humans?”

“Katelyn isn’t a blood prophet bringing down an army of humans on our heads; she’s not the one causing problems!”

“You tried to kill me over her; you think that’s not a problem?”

  
“Because of the blood prophet! None of this would have happened if he hadn’t come here; none of it would have happened if you would just snap his neck and be done with this whole–”

“Are you going to challenge me?” Andrew interrupted.

Aaron paused mid-rant, mouth still open. “What?”

“For leadership of the _Sanguinati_, are you going to challenge me? It might be a bit harder, without the prophet’s blood to give you strength, but you certainly gave killing me a go earlier today. I’ll listen to someone who can beat me. Otherwise, this isn’t a discussion I need to have with you.”

“Is it a discussion you want to have with Riko? I’m sure he would be very interested to hear the truth about the human.”

Andrew couldn’t hold back another snarl at the threat. “If you try to resist me on this, I’ll inform you of your exile from the Courtyard with Katelyn’s heart on your doorstep.”

“And if you touch her, I’ll rip the human’s throat open and use the strength his blood gives me to put you in the ground,” Aaron snarled. “Since you’re too much of a coward to use him for what he’s meant for.”

Andrew flew forward on instinct, slamming Aaron against the wall with a hand around his throat in an echo of his twin’s deadly grip from hours before. “Challenge me,” he hissed, “don’t play games.”

“Maybe I should,” Aaron hissed. “Even if you kill me, at least the others will know where your priorities lie. Not with the Chambers, not anymore.”

“He’s not a threat to the Chambers–”

“Anything that makes you behave like this is a threat to the Chambers! Since when do you choose humans over your own flesh and blood?”

Andrew released him, taking a step back. “Don’t act like our relationship is some horrible burden for you to bear and then get mad at me for not holding it as sacred.”

“Oh, sure,” Aaron laughed, harsh. “Because what you feel for Neil is so obviously the brotherly love you can’t get here. How is Neil any better than Katelyn?”

“They’re nothing alike.”

“Why, because you decided they’re not? Hate me for being weak enough to care about a human or hate me for recognizing the blood prophet for the threat he is. You can’t do both.”

“I made a _deal_ with him–”

“Do you really think I’m that stupid? Or are you just stupid enough to lie to yourself as well? Keep going like this and Riko won’t even have to interfere; you’ll get him killed yourself!”

For a moment they were both silent, glaring at each other, Aaron’s chest still heaving with what might have been the lingering effects of the blood or simply pure anger.

Andrew wasn’t stupid. He was at least self-aware enough to realize that his desire to protect Neil didn’t stem solely from some wish to see Riko angry. Maybe it was the scent of his blood; maybe he was mistaking hunger for possession, even if he’d been able to resist the hunger when Neil had made the cut. Or maybe the night in the bookstore had changed something, when he had killed for Neil, dropped the corpses before him like some sort of hunting prize.

Maybe he would blow Neil, if the opportunity arose, but that didn’t seem particularly relevant to the matter at hand.

“Neil stays in the Courtyard,” Andrew told Aaron eventually. “Under my protection, and Kevin’s, if it comes down to it. And out of the two of us, Neil cares about Katelyn’s safety a lot more than I do, so you may want to preserve your allies.”

“If he puts her in danger–”

“She knew she was in danger the moment she started working here. She certainly knew she was in danger the moment you two started whatever this is. If she’s unwilling to accept Neil’s danger, she can leave. Will you let her?”

“I wouldn’t force her to stay,” Aaron snapped in disgust.

“And I won’t force her to leave, as long as we’re clear on Neil.”

Aaron was still glaring, but some of the tension had eased from the room, Andrew’s muscles no longer tense as if they were on the edge of a true fight. “You know this won’t last. Riko won’t let it.”

“I’ll deal with Riko.”

And then he would deal with Neil’s father, the human who actually had the audacity to try and enter the Courtyard and take what wasn’t his. And then, once he had eliminated everyone foolish enough to stand in his way, he would deal with Neil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: Neil makes a cut in this chapter to release the prophecy.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed! As you might have noticed, I'm skipping around a lot in Andrew's pov because I don't want to just rewrite what you've already read, so a lot of the scenes are/will be things that Neil wasn't present for (or, if he was present, was oblivious to). If there are any scenes you really want to see from Andrew's pov, feel free to let me know in the comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out that the “long wait” between chapters was slightly longer than anticipated lol. This last year was probably the busiest in terms of classes that I’ve ever experienced, and I also spent a few months working on finishing my original novel. But I’m taking the GRE in two days, so of course that means I had to make time to come back to this and update! Thank you so much to everyone who left comments and kudos since the last update; that was really one of the biggest motivating factors for me to write this chapter. I hope everyone enjoys!

He hadn’t meant to show up at Neil’s apartment. The human had caused enough trouble already; Andrew deserved at least a small break from playing his keeper. Not even Neil could get into trouble so soon after his latest scrape with death.

But Neil had a habit of surpassing expectations, and Andrew didn’t have much use for breaks anyway. Still, he had only intended to circle the Wolf Complex a few times, ensure that nothing was out of place. Allison caught him lingering outside Neil’s door just seconds before he planned on turning away.

Andrew didn’t care what the Wolves thought of him, so her raised eyebrow and crossed arms shouldn’t have made him feel guilty. It didn’t make him feel guilty. He had every right to patrol the Courtyard; he didn’t need to explain himself to her.

“Here for a package?” Allison asked. “I don’t think Neil brings his work home with him; although I’m sure he would if given the option.”

“Just curious to see if the human has gotten himself nearly killed again already. What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” Allison pointed out. “And I’m on Neil duty until Matt and Dan get back from work. Dan doesn’t want him alone after what happened yesterday.”

Andrew ignored the unasked question in her last sentence. “I doubt he’s even awake yet. Do you plan on lurking outside his door until you see signs of life?”

“I planned on knocking. He can handle an early wakeup call.”

“No need,” Andrew said, the words out of his mouth before he was even aware of thinking them. “I’m not limited by doors; I can check on him myself.”

Allison’s eyebrows raised even further until they nearly disappeared beneath her platinum blonde hair. “Out of what, the kindness of your heart?”

Andrew bared his teeth in a smile. “The Wolves don’t have a monopoly on him. Besides, I wasn’t asking your permission.”

Allison considered him for another moment. “We don’t have a monopoly,” she said at last. “But don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re the only one who can get territorial. I’ll be back to get him in an hour. He better be all in one piece.”

“I’d hate to make any promises I can’t keep.” Andrew shifted before she could reply, drifting through the door and reforming inside Neil’s apartment. If Allison had anything to say, he couldn’t hear it; all of the Wolf apartments were soundproofed to preserve whatever privacy scent hadn’t already destroyed.

The living room was empty, and when Andrew moved further back into the bedroom he found Neil predictably sacked out on his bed, mouth open and breath rasping across a small damp spot on his pillow. Andrew took a seat across from the bed, considering the sleeping human.

Asleep like this, he looked almost innocent. It was hard to imagine that the vulnerable figure in front of him could be capable of causing so much trouble. It was hard to imagine that Andrew was willing to cause so much trouble on his behalf.

Neil shifted in his sleep and Andrew tensed, but a second later the human let out a sigh and buried his head deeper into his pillow. He really was vulnerable; asleep and oblivious to the predator seated mere feet away. It was honestly a miracle that he had managed to survive this long, given how adept he was at finding the most dangerous situation possible and flinging himself into it headfirst. Maybe his mother had tempered those instincts while she was alive. Or maybe she had been the victim of those instincts, and Andrew was just the next person in line waiting to fall to Neil’s innate tendency to attract danger.

Maybe Andrew was nothing more than the latest danger Neil had managed to attract.

Neil shifted again, and this time his eyes blinked slowly open to stare blearily at Andrew, nothing in his face or heartbeat giving away the fear that should have been there. Andrew glanced down at his own hands, inspecting his nails carefully instead of meeting the human’s gaze.

“You’re beginning to make a habit of watching me sleep,” Neil rasped out, still showing no signs of flinching away.

“And you’re beginning to make a habit of almost dying. I’d say one is worse than the other.” Andrew couldn’t help but lean closer, breathe in subtly as his gaze locked on the white bandages that still encircled Neil’s neck. “Have you had anything to eat yet?”

Neil shook his head, the movement causing the bandages to shift and the faint scent of old blood to waft through the air. Andrew jerked back before any more of the scent could reach his nostrils, standing up to further the distance between them.

“You lost a lot of blood; you should eat.” Andrew turned away to walk back to the kitchen before Neil could reply, absently running his tongue along the sharp ridges of his teeth.

Andrew began to work without thinking about it, doing his best to cobble together an omelet from the meager offerings of Neil’s fridge. The scent of eggs and cheese was almost enough to distract him until Neil entered the room, bringing with him a familiar, dizzying sweetness that only seemed to get worse the longer Andrew lingered in the apartment.

“The contents of your refrigerator are genuinely pathetic,” Andrew said, forcing himself to focus on the frying pan in front of him. Surely Neil hadn’t always smelled this strongly. “Have you changed your bandages yet?”

“No, I was going to do that after I showered.”

“Go shower now.”

Thankfully Neil obeyed him, the scent of the room soon becoming bearable once more. Andrew finished one omelet and set to work on making one for himself, focusing on the blissfully mindless task of cracking the eggs and prodding at the yolk. He could do this. He would give Neil his breakfast, have something to eat himself to stave off his current hunger, and then leave Neil to Allison’s mercies. He really wasn’t even sure why he was here in the first place, only that the idea of Allison being the first person that Neil saw this morning made something in him bristle.

The sound of the shower shut off just as Andrew finished with his own omelet, so he plated both meals and brought them over to the small kitchen table. Neil walked in a few minutes later, pausing when he saw the two plates.

“Do you eat?” he asked, apparently caught between a mixture of surprise and confusion.

Andrew stared at him for a moment. It was much harder to imagine Neil as some dangerous, manipulative siren when he said things like that. “Yes, Neil, I eat.”

“I just, I thought maybe _Sanguinati_ only needed blood.”

“Humans don’t need chocolate, and yet you all seem to indulge yourselves in that. Blood gets boring after a while.” It was only partially a lie. Certain types of blood – animal blood, stale, bagged blood – those lost their allure. The saccharine scent of Neil’s blood had yet to become any less tempting.

Neil seemed to accept the answer, sitting down and immediately beginning to wolf down the food on the plate before him. Andrew watched as he ate, taking in the frantic pace, as if the food might be ripped away at any moment. That fear, at least, had lasted. He could do with a bit more fear of the other aspects of the Courtyard.

“What is it?” Neil asked, forcing Andrew to tear his gaze away from where it had once again settled on the bandages without his say-so.

“How’s your neck?”

Neil reached up a hand to tug at the bandages, releasing another fresh wave of the scent of old blood. “I’m fine.”

“One day you’re going to say that and I’m going to kill you.”

“It’s true,” Neil said, sounding completely unbothered by the threat. “How’s your neck?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I’m not. Aaron nearly strangled you too.” Andrew’s expression must have changed at the mention of his brother, because Neil hesitated a moment. “Is Aaron going to be a problem?”

“We discussed it. We’ve come to an agreement, concerning humans and certain attachments to them.”

Not that their situations were in any way similar. Aaron had made the mistake of actually developing feelings for a human. All Andrew had done was get a bit too possessive. It was probably a natural byproduct of the deal he’d struck

“So he’s not going to go to Riko about me the second he gets back?” Neil prodded.

“Not if he values Katelyn’s continued survival.”

“Why did he care so much about her anyway?”

Andrew paused at the words, searching Neil’s expression for any trace of facetiousness. The human looked completely serious; there was no sign that he had any inkling why Aaron might be willing to kill over the human waitress.

“I thought at first it was part of the façade, but you really are this stupid, aren’t you? I’d like to think it’s because your unique childhood prevented you from understanding relationships, but I think that might be giving you too much credit.” At least Neil was unlikely to pick up on any of Andrew’s weaker moments.

Neil shrugged, the insult seeming to slide effortlessly off of him.

“Guess you’re stuck with me now.”

“Unfortunately,” Andrew agreed, finally sliding into his own seat and beginning to eat in an attempt to drown out the other scents of the apartment.

He finished quickly, the eggs doing almost nothing to satiate his true hunger, and once he was done his hand slipped down to the object in his pocket. He’d planned on giving it to Neil later, or maybe handing it off to Kevin to pass on, but there was no time like the present. Andrew slid the small flip phone across the table, watching as Neil caught it and stared down at it in confusion.

“What’s this?”

“Even you can recognize a phone, Neil.”

“But what’s it for?” He still sounded utterly confused.

“Next time you’re in danger, you call me first. And if I’m not available, you try one of the Wolves who are so fond of you for some reason. I already programmed my number in.”

Neil contemplated the phone for a moment, frowning slightly. “Why are you fighting so hard to protect me?” he asked at last.

If Andrew couldn’t come up with an answer that satisfied himself, he certainly wasn’t going to try and offer one to Neil. Instead, he grabbed both of their plates and brought them over to the sink. It was easy not to think while he focused on scrubbing the dishes clean, but when the water shut off, the silence was still heavy with expectation.

Andrew heard the sound of Neil standing and beginning to walk over, and a second later Neil squeezed himself between the counter and Andrew, forcing Andrew to take a step back or risk a face full of Neil’s neck.

“Andrew.” Neil didn’t look scared or angry; just solemn.

“I keep my promises,” Andrew told him. It was as good an answer as any.

“Is that all this is?”

He had to know what he was doing. He had to see the restraint it took not to lean forward and take. And yet surely even Neil wasn’t suicidal enough to recognize such danger and move closer.

“What do you want from me, Neil?”

The sound of Neil’s heartbeat sped up by a beat, thunderous in the near-silence of the room. “Probably more than I can have.”

Andrew dug his nails into the skin of his palm, trying to think past the beat of Neil’s heart and the rush of blood in his veins. But beneath that was just Neil, still as inexplicably tempting as his blood was, still demanding answers to questions he didn’t even know enough to ask.

Andrew’s body moved before his brain could catch up, and it was only when he felt Neil’s surprised huff of breath against his lips that he realized he’d gone for his mouth instead of his neck. He tried to pull back the moment understanding struck, but Neil moved with him, returning the kiss and driving any semblance of rational thinking from Andrew’s brain. He’d never felt this out of control before, not when his ultimate goal wasn’t blood, and when he finally gathered up the strength to wrench himself away, Neil looked just as dazed as Andrew felt. The other man leaned forward as if to start again and Andrew shot out his hand to keep him at bay, trying hard to regain control over his own racing breath.

“Why’d you stop?” Neil asked, eyes wide and slightly glassy.

“You nearly died yesterday,” Andrew said, more a reminder for himself than for Neil. “You’re not in a place to be jumping into something like this so soon.”

“I’ve almost died plenty of times.”

The wave of possessive protectiveness did nothing to make letting go of Neil any easier. “You’re not helping your case.”

“I don’t- do you not want to?”

Andrew hated the hint of uncertainty in Neil’s voice; hated the way it made his own chest clench. “That is not the problem here.”

“Then what is?”

“Do you know what Dan and Matt would do to me if they thought I hurt you?” It was the first reason he could think of, even if it was far from the most salient. Maybe Neil would finally pull away if Andrew told him just how close he came to draining him every time he so much as smelled him, but for some reason Andrew couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

“We both know you’re not afraid of Dan or Matt; that’s a bullshit excuse. Besides, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Andrew had to hold back a laugh. “You have too much faith in me.”

“Maybe they don’t have enough.”

It was the calm certainty in Neil’s eyes that finally gave Andrew enough strength to release his shirt and step away. It was misplaced faith, certainly, but Andrew wasn’t going to let it down today.

“We’re not doing anything else today,” he said, a mandate for both Neil and himself.

“Fine,” Neil said, although he still looked undeterred. “But we are going to talk more about this.”

“You can say that if it makes you feel better. I’m going to go back to Howling Good Reads and remind Kevin that I’m still a co-owner.” It would be better for everyone if he got out of the apartment and away from temptation as soon as possible.

Andrew was finally released from the weight of Neil’s full attention as the other man glanced towards the clock, his eyes immediately widening in distress. “Oh, shit, I have work this morning!”

And just like that, Neil was back to an irritating human who was far too earnest for his own good. “Nicky volunteered to cover for you today. Kevin is an asshole, but even he wouldn’t expect you to come into work after yesterday. If he did, Dan would probably kill him herself.”

“Why is everyone making such a big deal out of yesterday? I’m not traumatized.” He sounded like a petulant child.

“No, you’re clearly perfectly well-adjusted.”

“I’m not traumatized from _that_, then,” Neil insisted. “I can still go into work for the afternoon shift.”

“Neil. You’re not working today.” Even if he somehow managed to persuade Andrew, Dan would never go for it, and Andrew didn’t particularly feel like fighting that battle.

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“What do humans normally do with their free time? Read a book. Watch a movie. Get some sleep; you could obviously still use it.”

Neil glared at him for a moment longer before throwing himself onto the couch and crossing his arms. If he had been anyone else Andrew would have said he was pouting.

“I hope you realize that this is completely unnecessary. I’m fine.”

He probably would be, once Andrew finally left the apartment. “You can go in tomorrow and fix whatever mess Nicky will have made,” Andrew told him. “Just don’t do anything stupid until then.”

Andrew walked over to the door, not quite wanting to shift when his instincts had held far too much of a sway over his actions earlier, but couldn’t bring himself to leave without speaking one last time. “I gave you the phone for a reason, Neil. If something goes wrong, call me.”

Neil gave a vague grunt of assent and Andrew finally left, breathing in deeply the moment he was outside the apartment. Even the overpowering stench of Wolf allowed him to think more clearly than Neil’s scent had. Maybe he really would go to Howling Good Reads. Seeing Kevin would certainly kill any lingering traces of the urges Neil had managed to bring out. Maybe he would even try doing his job.

* * *

It turned out that the complexities of running a bookstore hadn’t become any more interesting over the last couple of weeks, and after a few minutes spent poking at Kevin until the Wolf growled loudly enough to scare off the current customers, Andrew found himself back in A Little Bite. Katelyn was conspicuously absent and the other human waitress cut a wide berth around him, but Renee came out not long after with a chocolate muffin for Andrew and a scone for herself.

She was at least kind enough to wait until he had finished his muffin before speaking, but her knowing, slightly-amused smile was impossible to ignore for long.

“What?” Andrew snapped at last, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

“No need to get snippy with me,” Renee said mildly. “I voted for your boy to stay.”

“He’s not _my _anything.”

Renee raised a single, unimpressed eyebrow.

“He’s an investment,” Andrew allowed at last. “He’s interesting. I’m waiting to see what he’ll do.”

“It sounds like he wouldn’t be doing much but dying if it weren’t for you.”

“He does have an affinity for it, doesn’t he? And yet here he is.”

“You sound positively enamored.” Renee’s tone was joking, but Andrew couldn’t help the way he bristled at the words.

“I made a promise to protect him. That’s all.”

“And why would Andrew Minyard do that?”

Andrew met her eyes carefully. He trusted Renee. Or at least, he trusted her more than anyone else in the Courtyard. She didn’t like Riko any more than he did, but she had the kind of patience that allowed her to sit back and watch it all play out. Apparently living for centuries could mellow a person.

“Riko doesn’t like him. Isn’t that reason enough?”

Renee blinked slowly, a sign that she understood the words Andrew had left unspoken. “That explains keeping him alive. It doesn’t quite speak to the… attachment.”

“Call it territorial.”

“I think there are better words for it.”

“What do you want to hear?” Andrew snapped. “I’m not going to kill him. I’m not going to take advantage of him; even if he is too stupid to know what’s best for him.”

“And you do? Know what’s best for him?”

“I know it’s not me.” Andrew regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth; they carried far too much raw honesty for the scathing retort he had intended.

Renee regarded him silently for a moment. “I think you’re too harsh on yourself. You’re allowed to want. You’re even allowed to act on that want.”

“I thought you wanted him around. My draining him seems a bit antithetical to that.”

“Is violence the only outcome of desire? That’s certainly not what I’ve seen.”

Andrew had to resist the urge to bare his teeth at her. “It is for _Sanguinati.” _

“Maybe you’re young enough to still believe that. But I don’t think so.”

Andrew was silent for a moment, contemplating the crumbs on his plate instead of meeting Renee’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. Neil’s only looking for protection.”

“Yes, because Neil’s so obviously adept at self-preservation.”

Andrew didn’t respond, poking at his plate one last time before standing up and pushing his chair in. “I appreciate the muffin. And what you said during the deliberations. I won’t forget it.”

Renee sighed, but she didn’t move to stop him. “I’m not going to fight you on this, Andrew. I just think you should give Neil and yourself a little more credit.”

“I’ll give Neil some credit when he stops finding new and creative ways to get himself killed,” Andrew tossed over his shoulder as he turned to leave the store.

And when Neil stopped finding new ways to get himself killed, it wouldn’t matter anymore. He would finally understand the necessity of staying as far away from Andrew as possible.


End file.
